Obama talks tough on trade with China, despite government purchase

President Barack Obama told a campaign crowd in Ohio Wednesday he would be tougher than his Republican opponent Mitt Romney when it comes to trade with China.

“He’s been talking tough on China, he says he’s going to take the fight to them, he’s going to go after these cheaters,” said Obama, who credits his administration for filing nine trade complaints against the Communist country.

“So when you hear this new found outrage, when you see these ads he’s running promising to get tough on China, it feels a lot like that fox saying, ‘You know, we need more secure chicken coops.’ I mean, it’s just not credible,” Obama said.

In one of those actions, the Obama administration accused China of flooding the U.S. market with heavily subsidized solar panels and in May imposed stiff tariffs up to 250 percent on the imports.

However, the action came after a federal inspector general discovered that the Obama administration broke its own stimulus program rules to purchase solar panels made in China for $200,000, which are now installed on the rooftop of a federal building in the president’s home state of Illinois.

“I’m not just talking the talk,” Obama told the cheering Ohio crowd. “I have woken up every single day doing everything I can to give American workers a fair shot in this global economy.”